Scope and Content Note
The papers of Charles Russell Train (1879-1967) span the years 1898-1967. Train was the son of Charles Jackson Train (1845-1906), commander in chief of the Asiatic fleet, 1904-1906. Like his father, he was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and during his forty-three year naval career he commanded ships in the Asiatic and Atlantic fleets, served as naval attaché to the American embassies in Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria, was president of the Naval Reserve Inspection Board and the Naval Examining Board, and served as naval aide to President Herbert Hoover. Train retired from the Navy in 1939 with the rank of rear admiral. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1967.
The papers consist of photocopies of Train's journals, scrapbook, biographical sketch, and obituary, as well as a photocopy of a Naval Historical Foundation publication on the resignation of Willard H. Brownson as chief of the Bureau of Navigation in 1907. The journals and scrapbook document Train's naval career and personal life with daily journal entries, letters, menus, newspaper clippings, photographs, programs, social invitations, telegrams, and other related material. The papers include references to practically every major event of Train's military service and private life, including his participation in the around-the-world cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907, command of the Utah (battleship) during Herbert Hoover's South American tour in 1928-1929, numerous social and diplomatic events attended by Train and his wife, and service as a director of Children's Hospital and vestryman of St. John's Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C.